In the home-invasion case, Tryon returned an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, which had been confiscated by Varnrobinson from the suspect so it could undergo ballistics testing.

The owner of the rifle was white and an acquaintance of the lieutenant's.

When Hunter, on behalf of his partner, objected to Tryon's action, the now-former detective tells New Times that Tryon said, "Varn can't go around taking guns from every white boy in town."

Brian Stauffer

Rankin says Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles (pictured) cost him $40,000 a year by shutting down the system of child-support enforcement that gave work to Rankin's process-service company, transferring that system to the state.

Hunter's complaint resulted in Tryon's reprimand by the town manager.

Varnrobinson's complaint was handed over to the Arizona Department of Public Safety for investigation.

During the DPS investigation, Tryon admitted to returning the weapon to its owner, saying he had the right to do so.

The sexual-assault case involved a 16-year-old girl allegedly raped by at least one Florence High School football player at a 2007 party in the desert.

Hunter was lead detective on the case, but Tryon butted in despite his having a conflict of interest because his son was on the football team and knew others at the party, including the prime suspect.

Tryon's son also had taken the highly inebriated victim to the police station on the night of the incident.

In addition, Tony Jimenez, principal of Florence High School at the time and currently an assistant superintendent of the Florence Unified School District, is the brother of Tryon's wife, Sylvia.

Nevertheless, Tryon caused cell phones containing photos and video of the alleged sexual assault to be returned to the students who owned them.

This happened before Hunter could obtain warrants so that the evidence on the cell phones legally could be downloaded for use in court.

No one ever was charged in the case.

In the end, the Pinal County Attorney's Office declined to bring charges against Tryon for tampering with evidence, concluding that there was no reasonable likelihood of convicting him.

Part two of New Times' "Florence Exposed" series ("Suffer the Children," November 21) focused on two cases mishandled by the FPD: the alleged rape and the 2009 shooting death of 9-year-old Dustin Kemp.

In the killing of the boy, lead Detective Renee Klix, an ally of Tryon's, based her investigation on the premise that Dustin's 2 1/2-year-old brother removed a loaded .45-caliber semiautomatic Kimber 1911 handgun from a "hidden" table drawer and shot his brother through the head from five feet away.

During the appeals hearings for the fired detectives, it was revealed that Varnrobinson, Hunter, ex-FPD chief Ingulli, and then-Deputy County Attorney Greg Hazard all believed that Dustin's out-of-work dad, James Kemp, was responsible for the shooting.

In fact, during a taped 2012 discussion of the case, Hazard told Varnrobinson, "I think the father did it, I really do."

Varnrobinson and Hunter had been ordered to re-investigate the case by Chief Ingulli because Klix had done a poor job handling the crime scene and had failed to conduct a formal interview with James Kemp to confront him about his suspicious behavior and statements.

After Ingulli was fired and replaced with Hughes, the new chief accused Hunter and Varnrobinson of attempting to discredit Klix and Tryon (who also was at the Kemp crime scene) by re-investigating the Kemp case.

But based on Ingulli's appeals-hearing testimony that he had asked Varnrobinson and Hunter to look into the Kemp case, hearing officer Richard McAnally ruled against the police department.

However, McAnally did use a tangential allegation — that Varnrobinson had surreptitiously recorded then-Deputy County Attorney Hazard — to justify the black detective's firing. This, even though it was standard procedure for Varnrobinson to record the statements of those involved in investigations.

As part of a deal with prosecutors, James Kemp pleaded guilty on October 18 to a single charge of domestic-violence endangerment and was sentenced to a year of supervised probation.

Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles, like many top prosecutors, claims to be a tough-on-crime zealot.

In a statement to the Florence Reminder and Blade-Tribune, the Republican county attorney blamed his predecessor, Democrat Jim Walsh, for allowing the Kemp case to "languish."

He called Dustin Kemp's killing "a tragic accident" and claimed that Klix's investigation had been "lengthy and comprehensive."

Voyles told the Reminder, "In this case, there was no evidence that James Kemp did anything more than endanger his children by storing his guns unsafely."

Noteworthy is that Hazard, who worked at the County Attorney's Office until recently, was the prosecutor who pulled the case from a grand jury because he found it riddled with unanswered questions, and that Klix's "lengthy and comprehensive" investigation involved not doing a formal interview of the main suspect.

As was discussed in parts one and two of this series, nothing happened with the Kemp case until June, when New Times requested all relevant documents from the County Attorney's Office and Florence, both of which denied the requests initially.

In August, Voyles' office began to re-evaluate the case. And, in October, James Kemp was quietly charged and pleaded out. Voyles made his comment a week after part one of this series was published and one day after part two was published online.

Interestingly, Rankin and Voyles are not political allies. The mayor says he backed incumbent and fellow Democrat Walsh in the 2012 election.

Tragic consequences seem to be haunting the House of Rankin lately as well. This article states that outbursts of temper are commonplace with this elected official. Is Heath Rankin, the officer identified by Sheriff Babeu as the shooter of Mr. Longoria in Eloy, related to self-described gunslinger Tom? Are impulsive acts rampant in the Rankin line? When will poor Pinal County ever move past the muck and the mire? When will our savior arrive?

We voted for him because he speaks with a fork tongue! When you lie sometimes it takes a while to catch up with you. So his lies were true those who didn't know. It's time for a full investigation! Town of Florence Town Council, you need to demand a full investigation of all allegations that have been made on this website. Tom Rankin should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Town Council I suggest you bring outside sources in to do the investigations. When such allegations of murder, rape, concealment of evidence, tampering with evidence, racial allegations, nepotism, tampering with law enforcement, sloppy investigations, sexual harassment, and many more that have been listed. When these type of allegations have been made about your mayor your sergeant your lieutenant your police department your investigators, they need to be taken seriously. If the town council let this go, we the people of Florence will not stop. Do not try to sweep these allegations under the rug. Get the dirt out of your town, our town. If these allegations are true these people need to be held accountable, every one of them.

Stop talking about the children, how many children they have had, how many marriages or sex partners, their drug history, there criminal history, is now all in the past ( for some of them). This is what is wrong with the town of Florence. You never let go of peoples past you always throw some ones and negative passed in their face. I know that two of those members of those children have worked very hard on their lives. Leave them in peace. And go after who you truly want. Tom Rankin I know you've done wrong, I know you're dirty, if you're not afraid, and think you and your current Chief of Police are totally in the right, then encourage in outside investigation on all of these allegations. From the young ladies rape, young child unfortunate death, the firing do to prejudiced and racial, and the firing of the last Chief of Police!

These allegations about the Rankin family doesn't surprise me at all! Anything or anybody good for the town of Florence that isn't Tom Rankin and his family, they see to it they are chased out of town. Take for example Bob, the ex chief of police, Bob had good communication skills, the only reason he got a bad score on communications from the recent interview test what because Terry was pissed. The please department needs to get out of the hands of the town council (manager), that gives the opportunity for foul play.

Now TomTom I believe top shooter put on there your rap sheet! However since your dad was able to get you out of many allegations. But how about your most recent, are there charges pending for the abuse of your baby's momma? Everyone knows you're a woman beater, un educated, unemployed, still living at your mama's house, you won't leave Florence because you know you won't make it anywhere else! Do yourself a favor and go get help, without being rude you seriously need it!

Jessica what is it like to get a promotion because you slept with your boss? Does your current husband know how many people you slept with after you broke up and got back together? How many kids, how many marriages, how many sex partners? And are you still doing a sex partner swaps!

Robbie good thing you finally cleaned up your act (supposedly). How many children do you have that you're actually taking care of? How many people off Florence have you stolen from? And from the comments below it looks like you even stole from your parents!

Three children With a bad sense of direction And a bad sense of morals wondering where they got their values and morals from

sounds like you all know us so good! lol you all r full of shit and need to pull ur heads out ur ass!! come on people get a life look up ur family tree!! you mad now! its not helping stressing over shit u dnt know!! smile and wave at u dummys!!

Sounds to me like this town has a low mentality, my guess is a high pregnancy rate, high drug and alcohol rate with complete denial. It also sounds like There should be an investigation into the allegations , very thorough one where local law enforcement and/or their friends in different cities or towns are not involved in, then maybe these people that are afraid to speak will speak knowing somethings going to get done. If I was the town manager or the town mayor in order to clear my town from these allegations I would have an outsider come in and do it clean investigation but if they're banning this new times they're probably going to deny a good investigation or they'll do an investigation with their people. That is typical small town mentality it is the town's fear of not being the important person anymore, psychological evidence would says this town has serious problems

@gregarmyguard exactly how many dead people can light a fire sounds suspicious or if its going to be the other way around how many people shoot themselves after they've lit a fire I'll bet if it was investigated there would be more found out......

Donna doesn't care that her husband is a pig she knows he has cheated on her he make sexual comments in front of women in front of her all the time. The Rankin family is embarrassing to Florence they think their name means something but that something is stupid!

Tom and Donna just because you have a biracial child doesn't mean you're still not racist. So stop going around saying for Christ sakes our child is half black. You know you disapprove of TomTom dating a black woman you know that won the president of the United States got elected and the sheriff of Pinall County got elected, that is the year Tom and Donna went around saying" what has the world come to, we have a nigger for president in a faggot for sheriff"_ hell you guys have a younge black girl that just think you're everything she's babysitting for you volunteering for you helping you right and left, but if she knew you called her a nigger mixed raced , psycho who is sexually confused, and clings to everybody I think she would hate you just as much as everybody else who knows your true colors.y. Yet in front of her face you act like you like her, Jessica might actually like her but Donna and Tom come on you called her and nigger!

Tom you should have charges of sexual harassment pressed against you, and I thinking investigation by the Superior Court in Pinal County Attorney's which find that you have spoke to women many times inappropriately. Making comments about the breast size or there butt the sizes, or if they're gay telling them they just haven't had the right dick yet! Donna you know he's a pig. Tom what happened to one of your wives husband, or was it a woman you were cheating with? Anyway somehow he turned out shot killed himself and then burn his house down. Wasn't that while you were cheif of the police. Didn't you have something to do with that investigation since you were datin the woman whose husband was involved maybe you shouldn't have been involved in the investigation. This is a plea to Pinal County Attorney's investigation needs to be launched on Tom Rankin With his involvement in the town the police department the county attorney's office and Superior Court. I believe that people know he will be held accountable for the things he has done in the past and is still doing, they will begin to speak!

them say it who do you think you are protecting? Tom you know Bob ex Cheif of police stood by your family when you had a heart attack and your kid stole your wallot and made you broke! Bob did nothing but show kindness to you he respected you and your family and you never gave it back! His education made you afraid of him Admit it! Also concerning Jarred VanRobinson you Donna and tom have called him a nigger ccommenting that a nigger has a badge now! Terry Tryon you think Rankin family likes you your wrong, they call you a baffling baboon! Terry admit yor wrongs it's not worth Rankin family taken you and your family with them is it? Tell how Tom really handled Tom Tom when being arrested for crimes he was caught at! How about the time Tom demanded Tom Tom car to be released out of impound!

I live in Florence and I love my town, and find it quite interesting how people come to these websites and assume that an entire town is as portrayed in the article. Sure, I know the Rankins, and they are a family just like any other family, good, bad, or indifferent. Are they perfect, no, and neither are you. They are not a Klan, or a Mafia, or anything else, they are people who deserve to be respected as such.

Having personally dealt with members of the Rankin klan and in my opinion are definitely not too bright and are assholes. Their bullying campaigns begin once you disagree with any of their opinions or upon engaging them in conversation and leaving them speechless and dumb-founded in front of others. (Which really isn't hard to do.) Now that responsible city politics is coming to small town Arizona, these old timers like the Rankin klan are thankfully wedged out of politics.

Do a similar investigative story on the US Marshal's Office and what everyone thinks of Marshal David Gonzales! Interview people he worked with while Chairman of HIDTA. Do a lawsuit records search in Federal Court.

The fact is that the Rankin gang has run off more local businesses than helped. One business owner told me she would never invest another dime in Florence because of what she called, "the yahoo mentality."

@Jukes Where do you live, and we can talk about the things that are wrong with it! No place is perfect and happiness is what you make of it. I STILL love my town!!!! Did I say I love the police force? No, but I bet you don't love yours either!! But I don't hate or disrespect them for the job they do either. Don't sit in judgement making yourself feel better by downing others. That's what bullies do

@TheyCallMeMrTibbs@MsKay Show me where I called this an "average" family, and then we can continue on with this discussion. You jumped to all kinds of conclusions, I said they are a family worthy of respect as all people are worthy of respect. I have lived in Florence for 30 plus years, my friend. and still proud of it. I have accomplished just as much living in Florence as I could living anywhere else. So you can knock Florence, but you seem to spend quite a bit of time trolling the internet.... Mr. Tibbs. Excellent Movie, however...or do you know your name is a line from a movie?

@king181465 ...Thanks for validating the content in my post. Trust me, the majority of Florence and Coolidge residents are laughing at the Rankin klan right now. Perhaps you can all return to school and learn how to use punctuation.

@dogbiter This is why you do an investigation. You won't have to speak to many people in HIDTA, in the Marshal's Office or in Superior Court Records, to see what there is about US Marshal David Gonzlaes.

I love fucking wit you dumb ass people that have no other lifes but put the vlame on someone! yes this is tom tom wats ur name!! let us all know who you really are instead of hiding behind your email! ur probably the dumb ass that ur family disowned!@thycallmemrtibbs